Speech #550032333

It is a question whether we will sell or put a value upon it. and let those who are able to pay that value buy it. At all events. it is the essence of protection. and that is what the -Senator from New Hampshire claims to bea protectionist. it is the quintessence of protection to American labor. and you stand here. and the. Republican party stands here. as the champion of American labor against the pauper labor of Europe. You erect a barrier against the products of the pauper labor of Europe. and you allow the pauper labor of Europe to come here and compete in our markets until you have today perhaps a half million of men tramping the streets of the Northern cities without bread. begging for work. The question is. Will you carry out your platform in any degree. in any pretense of fairness as to its construction. and give that protection to those who have already come to our shores which alone will enable them to obtain work for the next few years. and .that is. by stopping the supply of labor? For every man now tramping the streets you wish to add another man. If you do not do something to stop it. you continue to. pour into the supply of labor additional laborers. while you limit and harass and hamper and tie up the conditions which would allow thecountry to grow and expand in a natural way. The Republican platform. adopted last year. on this subject reads as follows: For the protection of the quality of our American citizenship and of the wages of our workingmen against the fatal competition of lowpriced labor. we demand that the immigration laws be thoroughly enforced. and so extended as to exclude from entrance to the United States those who can neither read nor write. The Democratic platform has this plank in it: We hold that the most efficient way of protecting American labor is to E reveict the importation of foreign pauper labor to compete with it in the ome market. and that the value of the home market to our American farmers and artisans is greatly reduced by a vicious monetary system. which dep)resses the prices of their products below the cost of production. and thus deprives them of the means of purchasing the products of our home mannfactories. And as labor creates the wealth of a country. we demand the passage of such laws as may be necessary in order to protect it in all its rights. In the Fiftythird Congress a leading Democratic member of the House of Representatives declared that platforms were made to get into power with. but not to carry out in good faith.